Xu Zhimo is a Chinese poet and essayist. He was born in 1897, and died in 1931 by an airplane accident. Since his family was pretty rich at that time, he had been to many countries such as Russia, Germany, Italy, France and so on. He also studied in Columbia University and King’s college, Cambridge. The poem I chose is “ Saying Good-bye to Cambridge Again”. In his third Europe traveling, he went to Cambridge quietly without a notice to find his English friends. However, none of his friends was there. Only the familiar Cambridge was waiting for him silently. The passed memory came across his mind, so he wrote this poem on his way back to China.
In the first stanza, Xu used ‘quietly’ three times. Quietly means ‘without making much noise’. The purpose of using that word continuously is to emphasize the quietness of the atmosphere. He even said good-bye not to people but “to the rosy clouds in the western sky”. I have a feeling that how desolate he was!
‘Bride’ means ‘a woman who is getting married or who has just got married’. Brides symbolize the beauty. The author likened the golden willows to young brides for depicting the beauty of the Cambridge. Then, he used ‘shimmering’, which means ‘to shine with a soft light that seems to shake slightly’, to described the waves so that it add all the more to the beauty.
‘Sway’ means ‘to move slowly from one side to another’. ‘Leisurely’ means ‘done slowly because you feel relaxed and are enjoying yourself’. ‘Sways leisurely’ signify the freedom. At the end of the third stanza, Xu wrote “I would be a water plant” to show that he had intense aspirations toward freedom.
The word ‘rainbow’ connotes the dream in the fourth stanza. However, we can observe that the author’s dream couldn’t be granted by phrases such as ‘from the sky’ and ‘shattered to pieces’.
In the fifth and sixth stanza, he expressed his deep regret for the reality that he couldn’t go back to former life to seek the dream.
In the last stanza, ‘gently’ symbolize that the author was unwilling to leave. However, he left his dream and memory behind and went away.
Very quietly I take my leave
As quietly as I came here;
Quietly I wave good-bye
To the rosy clouds in the western sky.
The golden willows by the riverside
Are young brides in the setting sun;
Their reflections on the shimmering waves
Always linger in the depth of my heart.
The floating heart growing in the sludge
Sways leisurely under the water;
In the gentle waves of Cambridge
I would be a water plant!
That pool under the shade of elm trees
Holds not water but the rainbow from the sky;
Shattered to pieces among the duckweeds
Is the sediment of a rainbow-like dream?
To seek a dream? Just to pole a boat upstream
To where the green grass is more verdant;
Or to have the boat fully loaded with starlight
And sing aloud in the splendor of starlight.
But I cannot sing aloud
Quietness is my farewell music;
Even summer insects heap silence for me
Silent is Cambridge tonight!
Very quietly I take my leave
As quietly as I came here;
Gently I flick my sleeves
Not even a wisp of cloud will I bring away
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Zhimo
http://baike.baidu.com/view/14176.htm
Well I think you could have break it down a little more. There are a few more symbols I think you left out.. one or to grammar error.... thats it... Good job... I think u did well on putting it in paragraphs.. :-)
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